Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the Light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the Light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the Light while you have it, so that you may become sons of Light.” When He had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid Himself from them. (John 12:35-36)

Jesus Wants To Save Christians From False Teaching

I begin by making sure the record is straight concerning my work about Rob Bell here at Apprising Ministries. As the Apostle Paul once said – “I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie” (Galatians 1:20), and the Lord knows what I am saying here is the truth. What I write about Bell is not simply about “bashing” him just for the sake of being critical, nor am I somehow “jealous.” I’ve already stated in Slice Cast: Rob Bell the Emergent Elvis I don’t want a large ministry. No, it’s about helping people see that his teaching is right in line with Brian McLaren and the Emergent Church .

This wouldn’t necessarily mean however that Rob or Brian aren’t nice people in and of themselves. From what I have seen they would appear to be. And we also note here that just because I say that someone teaches false doctrine it does not immediately mean I am also saying they are unsaved. But nevertheless when someone openly denies the inerrancy of Scripture–and both of these men do–when they are teaching a false view of the atonement and a social gospel–and both of these men are–then we now have every reason to begin to seriously question their relationship to Christ.

That said, the nanosecond Rob Bell would repent then I will also turn right around and be the very first to step in front of him to defend him. But until then however I must continue to warn evangelical pastors not to let Bell’s anti-Reformation teachings into their churches and youth groups which usually comes about through the seemingly innocuous Nooma videos. Because what begins to happen is just enough spiritual poison is injected through Bell’s work until one becomes slowly immunized to the views of this neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church.

So with this in mind I publish a recent email exchange I had with someone who initially commented on my article Rob Bell and the Emergent Myth. With the author’s permission here you’ll have a chance to follow along. Prayerfully you will also see another side of my labor in Christ as well as the value of a work like Apprising Ministries. Although under funded, nevertheless this work is still designed by God to be an aid to pastors who just don’t have the time to thoroughly study the increasing deceptions now rapidly slithering into their churches:

Hello,

As pastoral advisor as well as contributor at Slice of Laodicea this came to me. I’m also the author of the article you reference.

You write: “I am, admittedly, very new to all things related to the ‘conversation’. Please know that I am not trying to stock up ammo against Rob Bell. However, I am very disturbed by some of the comments I have been reading. Some of the links given for articles have expired so I was unable to read them.”

I receive this as sincere and please know I am responding in kind. As a counter-cult apologist and pastor I have been studying the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka “the conversation” from their own sources for this past year now. Well you should be “very disturbed.”

Then you ask: “Could someone provide me with a current link to an article where Rob Bell clearly calls into question the absolute authority of the Word of God. Where he denies the existence of a literal hell.”

Bell is quite vague in his writings and teachings. Here is the archive to my writings on him: https://www.apprising.org/archives/rob_bell/index.html You will find plenty of information there but to my knowledge he doesn’t deny a “literal” Hell. He redefines it (repaints) as do most Emergent leaders.

You said: “Some in my bible study are Rob Bell fans (we’re talking over the top) and I would really like to get some definitive answers without having to scour every word he’s written or spoken. Thank you.”

There is a huge danger posited by Bell for just the reason you state above–people go way over the top regarding him. No matter how “rough” my language is writing about Bell and other Emergents (due to the heavy sarcasm surrounding this movement) it is not about “tearing” Rob down for the sake of some victory.

The Lord knows I pray for his repentance but right now he is pretty smug where he is. Feel free to peruse my articles and if I can be of further assistance please know I will be glad to help you.

For Christ’s Honor,

Pastor Ken Silva
President
Apprising Ministries
https://www.apprising.org/
Ezekiel 3:7-14

*From:* The Bell Sounds Off
*To:* Apprising Ministries apprising@hughes.net

*Subject:* Re: Rob Bell/Slice

Ken,

The little I have read about Emergent scares me to death. And if Rob Bell is in agreement with Brian McLaren…then many of my friends are being fed some interesting doctrine.

I’ve listened to a few of Bell’s podcasts and depending on the subject, some of his sermons are great. But I’ve been listening to the series “Jesus Wants to Save Christians” and phew…I don’t know. I just finished the one on “Hell” which led me to Google which led me to you. If you’re familiar with this particular message, he states that when Jesus spoke of “hell” or “hades” (those specific words) He was actually referencing real places, i.e. “Gates of Hades”, etc.

At the conclusion of his message, he acknowledged that the congregation was waiting for him to say. “ok, so there is hell on earth….but what about eternity” He said it would be covered in a couple of weeks. I am looking for that podcast now.

Please take this comment in the spirit (kindness) in which it is given. I normally am skeptical of websites and ministries that seem to have a crusade against another individual or ministry. This is not an accusation. I’d just like to know what, if anything, your agenda is. Let me interject this here. I am legally blind and depend on screen reading software to navigate the internet.

So, to some degree, I depend on the opinions of pastors whom I’ve grown to respect and trust. I don’t have the physical ability to do a great deal of reading. So, in a way, I am thankful for websites like yours that aggregate information. But at the same time…

My main agenda re: Rob Bell, is to simply be prepared to “warn” those who appear to be “disciples” against possible false teaching and to assist my leadership in guarding the flock.

Thanks for you time, energy and assistance!!
The Bell Sounds Off

*From:* Apprising Ministries apprising@hughes.net
*To:* The Bell Sounds Off
*Subject:* Re: Rob Bell/Slice

Hello,

I’ll answer this way in prayerful hope this will make our dialogue easier for you to read and follow. I appreciate hearing from you again and please know there is zero offense taken on my part. I pray you’ll receive my direct answers in the same fashion. You write: “The little I have read about Emergent scares me to death. And well it should scare you because their teaching is experience-based and not Bible-based.

Let me bring to your attention an article in Christianity Today called The Emergent Mystique the following information comes from a copy of that article that appears on Brian McLaren’s own website with comments from McLaren.

Pursuant to our discussion here we are told, and I quote: “The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself–‘discovering the Bible as a human product,’ as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat.” My specific background is in apologetics and evangelizing non-Christian cults. As one studies the history of the Church whenever we see someone “question” whether the Bible is inspired by God in all of its parts (verbal and plenary inspiration) they have already opened the door to their own deception.

Frankly we see this could possibly have begun with Rob Bell as early as the account of his preaching at the camp he describes in Velvet Elvis. On page 040 we read: “It was in that moment that I heard a voice. Not an audible, loud, human kind of voice, but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was, ‘Teach this book, and I will take care of everything else.’ ”

Now personally I don’t have a problem with Bell claiming that God spoke to him. However, let me share the following quote from another one who also says he heard God speak to him as well: “God spoke to me audibly, just like I am talking to you now. He said he would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century, if I would teach it to others.” This is according to page 178 of the publication The Way: Living In Love, where Victor Paul Wierwille, the founder of the non-Christian cult The Way International makes this quite similar claim.

As I note in my article Keeping You Apprised of: The Way International it’s after this “revelation” that Wierwille’s doctrines began to move even further away from orthodox Christianity. I noticed this as an interesting parallel with Rob Bell as well. I talk more specifically about Rob Bell’s neo-orthodox (at best) view of Holy Scripture here in Rob Bell Tolls on the Bible.

I fully believe you’ll come to understand that I’ve done my homework on Rob Bell if you examine the material in my Bell archive.

Next I turn to your comment: “And if Rob Bell is in agreement with Brian McLaren…then many of my friends are being fed some interesting doctrine.” I would have to say it’s more like horrible anti-Reformation and antibiblical doctrine. The following also comes from that same CT article. Please keep in mind here that Bell is the pastor that writer Andy Crouch chose to open his article on the Emergent Church with and then Crouch says:

The more I talk with the Bells, the more aware I am that they are telling me a conversion narrative–not a story of salvation in the strict sense,… The Bells, who flourished at evangelical institutions from Wheaton to Fuller Theological Seminary to Grand Rapids’s Calvary Church before starting Mars Hill,…[but] that very world, as the Bells tell it, became constricting–in Kristen’s phrase, “black and white…”

They are looking for a faith that is colorful enough for their culturally savvy friends, deep enough for mystery, big enough for their own doubts. To get there, they are willing to abandon some long-defended battle lines… And how did the Bells find their way out of the black-and-white world where they had been so successful and so dissatisfied? “Our lifeboat,” Kristen says, “was A New Kind of Christian.”

As you may know, this travesty A New Kind of Christian, which has become a near classic book in Emergent circles, was written by one Brian McLaren. Rob and Brian are indeed friends and Laurie Gordon, spokesperson at Mars Hill Bible Church, confirms that McLaren did teach at MHBC this past July while Bell was on his “Everything is Spiritual” tour.

Next you point out: “I’ve listened to a few of Bell’s podcasts and depending on the subject, some of his sermons are great.” I would venture that this would depend on your perspective. I would agree, for example, that Bell’s sermons are very good from the stand point of his target audience. He is a very good speaker, as is Joel Osteen for his audience. I don’t question that. I question their theology because they don’t claim to be motivational speakers but pastor-teachers sent by Christ. Does that make sense?

You then tell me: “But I’ve been listening to the series ‘Jesus Wants to Save Christians’ and phew…I don’t know.” Although I’m not quite sure how you meant this as it came across to me as if you’re saying: “Whew, Bell’s right here.” If so, then I’d have to say that you are probably correct when you say you “don’t know” because that title is classic Emergentese for Reformed Biblical Christians such as myself.

The point is they want to “save” their adherents, what they call “followers of Jesus,” from “Christians” like me who hold to the proper Biblical doctrine recovered at the Reformation. Instead they want to replace the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ with their repainted/reimagined social gospel.

You then point out: “I just finished the one on ‘Hell’ which led me to Google which led me to you. If you’re familiar with this particular message, he states that when Jesus spoke of ‘hell’ or ‘hades’ (those specific words) He was actually referencing real places, i.e. ‘Gates of Hades’,” etc. This would be correct, but what Bell doesn’t tell you is that orthodox Christian ministers such as myself believe in the historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible.

As such we also teach e.g. that when our Lord used gehenna He was referring to the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem (the valley of Ben Hinnom) as a metaphor. This place can be found in Jeremiah where the Israelites offered child sacrifices to the god Molech, this is no startling revelation, though Bell likes to paint these types of things as such.

You continue: “At the conclusion of his message, he acknowledged that the congregation was waiting for him to say. ‘ok, so there is hell on earth….but what about eternity.’ ” I talk a bit more about Rob’s view of Hell as expressed in Velvet Elvis in my article Rob Bell says “All-ee in Free”…Almost
but he is wrong when he compares anything on this earth to what Christ was actually talking about. And when he says that “hell is here on earth,” as he does in *VE, he is wrong because that was clearly not Christ’s intent.

Rob’s main problem is that the rabbinical information he loves to draw from actually originates from unregenerate men in the third century who may, or may not, have known what Jewish culture was two hundred years before them. However 1 Corinthians 2 tells us they cannot understand the spiritual meaning behind the words Jesus used when the Master was talking about what Hell actually is: Eternal separation from God – there, and not hell on earth – here.

Then you say: “Please take this comment in the spirit (kindness) in which it is given. I normally am skeptical of websites and ministries that seem to have a crusade against another individual or ministry. This is not an accusation. I’d just like to know what, if anything, your agenda is.”

Please let me assure you I have received this in exactly that way and I pray that I will also come across kindly. My agenda is to do and say what I feel led of the Lord to teach. Apprising Ministries has much more on this site than “a crusade” against Rob Bell. To those who are fans of Rob it might seem that way but, for example, I have probably written more concerning Brian McLaren.

My work at AM is to defend the Gospel from false teaching wherever it comes from (Jude3) as well as to equip believers to recognize it and then to be able to respond to it as well. It is nothing personal toward any of the men/ministries I may write about and e.g. should Rob repent and leave the neo-liberal cult he is in then I would be the first to jump to his defense.

Then you inform me: “Let me interject this here. I am legally blind and depend on screen reading software to navigate the internet. So, to some degree, I depend on the opinions of pastors whom I’ve grown to respect and trust. I don’t have the physical ability to do a great deal of reading. So, in a way, I am thankful for websites like yours that aggregate information. But at the same time…”

Thank you for sharing this and if the Lord does have you come to trust me I will be happy to help in any way I can. I say again what I have said many, many times to many people: My job is to point people to Jesus and leave them with Him. If the Master allows me the privilege of helping them further great; if not, that’s great too. As long as they are in the care of the Great Shepherd I’ve done my job.

So you see when you say: “My main agenda re: Rob Bell, is to simply be prepared to ‘warn’ those who appear to be ‘disciples’ against possible false teaching and to assist my leadership in guarding the flock,” you have also stated my main agenda. The one possible difference is that I have been given a bigger forum from which to do so and God has emboldened me to speak His heart plainly and directly to these Emergent vipers who dare to teach people to doubt His Word.

Finally: “Thanks for you time, energy and assistance!! The Bell Sounds Off” You are most welcome. Anytime, for the word minister means to serve.

In Christ,

Ken Silva, Pastor-Teacher

*From:* The Bell Sounds Off
*To:* Apprising Ministries apprising@hughes.net
*Subject:* Re: Rob Bell/Slice

Wow! Thank you so very much for taking, what had to have been, a great deal of time to provide me with such a thorough response. After spending a little more time on your website, it is clear that you are defending the Truth, not attacking a man. I also have had more time to listen to more podcasts. Some made my skin crawl. He did start out the series, “God Wants to Save Christians from…” by giving a short list of examples, i.e. boredom, lack of creativity and other things that…well…started the skin crawling process.

One of my initial reactions was “this is a social gospel”, which you stated as well. The other impression I started to get was that he really has no concept of what exactly his job as a “minister of the Word” is. He as such a casual, almost irreverent demeanor that makes one think that Rob has a more “buddy” view of Christ. His vernacular seems to go beyond just an attempt to connect. It almost comes across as an statement of rebellion against “pulpit manners”, for lack of a better term. (using phases like “screwed up”, mentioning “sex” to make a humorous, not relevant point, etc) Believe me, I have rebelled from the legalistic culture in which I was raised so I am not all making those comments form that perspective.

I will honor the time you took to provide all the links and comments for me by reading each one. I’m sure I will have questions. So you are likely to hear back from me again. I have just recently embraced reformed theology and it has changed the way in which I look at Scripture. It almost feels like I’m starting over in my walk. (in a good way) So, I am looking at all of this as an exercise in strengthening my faith and learning how to better defend God’s Word, not as an attack on RB!

Blessings!
The Bell Sounds Off